YouTube has been known for being a long-from video platform for years, but with short-form video taking center stage in the world of social media, YouTube introduced its newest feature – Shorts in September 2020 in India and later in March 2021 in the US. Like Instagram’s Reels, YouTube Shorts allow you to post vertically oriented videos with a maximum duration of 60 seconds.
In fact, according to Google, YouTube Shorts have reached a global daily viewership of 50 billion in 2023. This shows how immensely popular this feature has become since its launch. Its popularity has also led to countless creators and advertisers focusing their attention on this platform.
However, while creating content for YouTube shorts might seem similar to the process for Instagram Reels, chances are, your Shorts may not be getting the number of views you want them to.
If you’re frustrated with this lack of views and are wondering how you can increase them, this guide is for you. We list seven key reasons why your YouTube Shorts might not be getting views, along with how you can solve them.
7 Key Reasons Your YouTube Shorts are Not Getting Views
In this section, we take a detailed look through seven key reasons your YouTube Shorts aren’t getting views, and what you can do to change the tide in your favor.
The Algorithm Isn’t Picking Up Your Shorts
The first reason why your YouTube Shorts may not be getting views is because they may not be gaining the advantages of the YouTube algorithm. This could happen for various reasons – the lack of necessary metadata, poorly optimized captions, or even a low engagement rate.
So, for example, if your Shorts are missing key details like descriptions, titles, or relevant tags, you could be putting yourself at a disadvantage. This is because YouTube’s algorithm relies on these details to index and categorize your content so it can show it to its intended or relevant audiences.
Additionally, if your analytics show you that your videos have a low watch time or low engagement, this could be a signal of poor content to the algorithm, which will then not pick up your videos.
The Solution
To solve this problem, ensure you add all the relevant details when posting Shorts. You must also use relevant keywords to optimize your Shorts and give them a better chance of being picked up by YouTube’s algorithm.
Using Improper or Incorrect Hashtags
Hashtags are crucial to improving the discoverability of the Shorts you post online. However, they only work if you use them the right way. In actual terms, this means ensuring that the spellings of your hashtags are correct and that they’re relevant to the content of the Shorts.
Similarly, many individuals tend to think that adding a bunch of keywords to their hashtags can help improve their content’s discoverability, but this isn’t the case. Google’s algorithm strongly discourages the practice of keyword stuffing, and it prefers that they be naturally incorporated into your content.
Additionally, while it’s good to use a few branded hashtags, especially if they’re being used to build your brand’s identity and foster recognition, you must make sure not to get spammy with your approach.
The Solution
The solution here is to research the most relevant hashtags for your content and use a mix of both popular and niche-specific tags. Also, limit your use of tags to anywhere between three to five per post, and keep updating them with changing trends to ensure their relevance. In the above example, user @KarissaEats has used hashtags that are relevant to the content of the video and her YouTube channel.
Your Videos Are Posted in the Wrong (Horizontal) Format
As we mentioned earlier in the introduction, Shorts, like Reels, are meant to be vertically oriented videos that last up to 60 seconds. However, one mistake that’s all too common is the practice of posting landscape or horizontal videos to your Shorts. This reduces the overall visual real estate and also leaves unsightly black spaces on the top and bottom of the video.
These factors can lead to lower engagement rates as your audiences may not find your videos worth viewing for the entire duration or engaging with.
The Solution
Always ensure that your content for Shorts is recorded vertically, preferably in the 9:16 ratio. The goal is to ensure that your video meets all of Shorts’ video specifications and guidelines to give it the best possible chance at receiving higher views and engagement.
Your Videos Are Potentially Too Long
Have you ever come across the phrase “less is more?” These golden words couldn’t be truer in the case of YouTube Shorts, just as they sometimes are in life. While Shorts allows you to record or post videos that are up to 60 seconds long, you don’t have to use all 60.
This is because most people don’t have an attention span that allows them to view a single video for that long unless it’s truly engaging. According to studies, our average attention span stands at around 47 seconds.
Keep in mind that this then becomes the upper limit, and the ideal duration of your content, especially if you intend to retain your viewer’s attention, should be much shorter.
The Solution
The key to higher views and engagement is to keep your bounce rate as low as possible. The best way of doing this is to present your content in as engaging a manner as you can within a duration of about 15-30 seconds.
You’re Inconsistent With Posting Content
If you want to grow on social media to a point where you start making some money or even collaborating with brands, you have to be consistent with your content production. However, if you’ve just posted a few videos and rather inconsistently at that, you can’t expect an increase in your views.
This is because you need to consistently post videos to grow on YouTube or any other social media platform, for that matter. The more videos you post, the higher the chances of one of them going viral and bringing in more followers and views.
The Solution
Create a content calendar to manage your content production. Try posting at least two to three Shorts a week to signal to the algorithm that you’re routinely posting high-quality content. Additionally, streamlining your content creation can also help you focus more on the quality of your videos, which will further help your Shorts get more views. More on this in the next section.
Your Content Needs an Improvement in Quality
The number of views your Shorts get is directly related to the quality of the videos you post on the platform, just as with YouTube’s long-form videos. If you’ve been creating videos that are shaky or have poorly recorded audio, you can’t expect to have a high view count, as more viewers are likely to swipe past your video in search of something better.
While some creators post low-quality content since Shorts is a relatively newer feature, it comes at a cost. After all, it’s always wiser to choose quality over quantity if you want to increase the views and engagement on your videos.
The Solution
Pay close attention to the quality of the videos you record and post. For example, you can invest in a tripod to ensure your videos are always stable. Similarly, a good microphone can significantly help improve the quality of the audio, which plays a key role in the overall viewer experience.
Remember, these accessories don’t have to break the bank; you can find plenty of affordable options to do the job well. The key is to ensure you do your best to produce high-quality content at all times.
You Aren’t Giving Your Videos Enough Time to Gain Traction
If you’ve been doing everything mentioned above right, from creating high-quality content to carefully optimizing your videos, but your Shorts are still not getting views, it could be because they simply need some time to gain traction on the platform.
Like Instagram Reels, Shorts has also become highly competitive ever since its release, and it can often take some time to gain the algorithm’s advantage. This is especially true if you’re relatively new to posting content on Shorts.
The Solution
The key is to be patient and consistent. When it comes to creating Shorts, there’s no fixed timeline for when your videos will start gaining lots of traction or go viral. However, consistently creating high-quality content certainly increases your chances of that happening, and when it does, it’ll be worth the effort.
In Conclusion
Creating content isn’t as easy as it might seem, especially when you’re at the beginning of your journey. With every step, there are several things to keep in mind, and as a newbie, this can often feel overwhelming.
If you’ve been creating content for Shorts but haven’t been seeing the views you want your videos to get, take a close look at each of the scenarios described in this guide. Approaching this problem step-by-step can help you fix any mistakes and improve the quality and consistency of your content production.
One of the best ways of streamlining this process is to use the power of AI to create high-quality thumbnails and visuals for your YouTube content. With Predis.ai, you can create these elements in no time, along with generating captions, scheduling posts, and so much more.
Visit the Predis.ai website to find out how it can transform your content creation game.
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